God of Empty Spaces

When the Roman legions conquered Jerusalem in 70 AD, they sacked the Jewish temple. They entered into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, which for centuries only the Jewish High Priest had ever set eyes upon. They expected to find treasures galore, like they had found in every other temple they had ever looted.

They found sacred objects of gold in the Holy Place outside of the innermost chamber. The Arch of Titus in Rome shows the famed seven-branched candlestick, a table for showbread, and sacred trumpets being carried out by Roman soldiers. But in the Holy of Holies they found nothing. It was empty.

There was no famed ark of the covenant or anything else. This was not because the ark had been safely hidden away for Indiana Jones to later find. The holiest object of the Jewish religion had been lost centuries earlier and nothing ever took its place. There remained only the empty space to symbolize the presence of God.

Even when the Hebrews still possessed the ark, there was no image of God on it. On the lid of the ark were two cherubim facing each other with their wings outstretched. God was said to dwell in the empty space between the cherubim. YHWH was unique among the gods of the Ancient Near East. Whereas all the other gods were depicted with images, the Hebrew deity was imageless.

The ark itself was originally just an empty box as well, before the Hebrews began to fill it with sacred objects, such as "the golden pot that had manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant" according to the Letter to the Hebrews. That is the way we religious people are. We tend to fill up the empty places with material objects, doctrines and traditions until there is no place left for God.

On Earth Day the pastor of our local church began a series of messages on the biblical creation stories. Last Sunday she pointed out that in the first chapter of Genesis God spent the first three days making empty spaces and the next three days filling them in. I had never thought of it that way before. Emptiness and Fullness. Like any good sermon her words kept me thinking long after the benediction.

The universe started off as “empty and void” according to Genesis, and God preserved the emptiness in the midst of the fullness of creation. God created things but then separated them in order to maintain empty spaces. Separating the light from the darkness, separating the heavens from the earth, and then separating the waters on earth to form inhabitable land.

The Tao Te Ching says,

Spokes unite in the hub, 

but it is emptiness at the center 

that makes the wheel turn.

A pot is made of clay, 

but it is emptiness in the center

that holds the contents.

A house is made of wood, 

but it is emptiness within the walls 

that makes it inhabitable.

A human is made of flesh and blood, 

but it is emptiness at the center 

that makes us useful.

God is in the empty space. That is what the spacious interiors of the great cathedrals communicate. That is why the wide expanse of the heavens amazes us. That is why mountaintop vistas take our breath away. That is why the Grand Canyon awes us. That is why prayer and meditation are so powerful. We encounter emptiness at the center of our being.

That is where divine and human meet - in the Holy of Holies of the soul, the open space of consciousness which is our true nature. We are not these physical bodies or the busyness of the human mind. We are the space at the center. The treasure we seek is found in the emptiness.  

Recognizing the Enemy

It is distressing to me how easily this coronavirus pandemic has degenerated into a political battle. I was reminded of this over the weekend while witnessing the anger expressed in demonstrations across the country for “Opening Up America Again.” If there is one situation where we should be able to cooperate for the common good, it is this one. But it appears that I am mistaken … again. Each side blames the other for making the pandemic a partisan issue. Each side claims the moral high ground and demonizes the other.

I guess I should not be surprised at this development. Indeed I would be surprised if it were any different. Instead of bringing people together, it seems that times of national crisis too often drives people deeper into their warring tribes – liberals versus conservatives, Democrats versus Republicans, Trumpers versus anti-Trumpers, our religion versus their religion, our nation versus those nations, patriotic versus unpatriotic, American versus un-American, people like us versus people not like us.

Whatever label you choose to give to me, I am not your enemy. I refuse to make you into my enemy. We are in this together. Back in mid-20th century, Walt Kelly was writing his Pogo comic strip, which was often filled with profound, yet simple, wisdom. One memorable comic in 1972, penned during a time of great social discord in our country, had the words: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

When I ponder those words, it is like jumping down a rabbit hole into Wonderland. When we look closely at our enemy we see they are no different than us. I can see this clearly, even in the midst of the bitter political rhetoric of today. I see myself in the faces of the people who take the opposite position than I do on issues.

It takes very little imagination for me to see myself under other circumstances believing what they believe. A slightly different place of birth or trajectory in life, and I am them. They are me. They are my sisters and brothers, my sons and daughters. They are not my enemy. They are fellow humans. Our enemy is us.

The divisions that we see around us are simply the divisiveness of our own souls projected onto the world. National boundaries are nothing more than imaginary lines drawn on maps. The spread of this virus has reminded us of that. 

Racial differences are no more physically significant than being able to roll your tongue. (I can’t; don’t hate me for it.) Religious divisions are illusory, nothing more than ideas in our minds that are given the aura of Truth by the authority of scriptures and traditions.

I say it so often that some might find my words repetitive, but I will say it again. We are one. We are one with every other human being on this earth, as our DNA shows. We are one with all living things on this planet, as our DNA also shows. 

We are one with the earth, as our body chemistry shows. We are earth and return to earth. We are earthlings. We are one with the universe. We are born of the universe and are never separate from it. We are universelings. We are the universe aware of itself. 

We are one with God, which is simply a name we give to Reality in order to make the Incomprehensible more approachable. We come from God and return to God. We are the image of God, as my Scriptures say. We are mirrors reflecting God’s image back to God. 

There are no divisions in Reality. All is one. There is no “us versus them.” It is all our imagination. Therefore all we have to do is reimagine. May we let go of the contempt, name-calling and self-righteousness and see ourselves in the faces of the enemy. Our enemy is us. We are them. We are one.

Pandemic Fatigue

This pandemic is getting old. The novelty of the “stay-at-home” order is wearing thin. I don’t know about the coronavirus, but my curve is flattened. Don’t get me wrong. I am grateful that this pestilence has bypassed my family so far. And I pray for those I know who have been stricken with coronavirus and for those who are feeling the financial effects of the economic lockdown much more than I am.

I know that for many people this is a life and death situation. This virus is killing tens of thousands of Americans, like the Influenza Epidemic in the year my parents were born. As the Surgeon General said, it is this generation's 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. In fact more Americans have died of COVID just in New York City than died on 9/11 and at Pearl Harbor combined, and this attack is nowhere near to being over. But for me this pandemic has been more of a live television event than a firsthand crisis in real life.

For the first few weeks it was exciting. It was like I was an actor in my own dystopian action film. “Pandemic” – starring Marshall Davis with everyone else as supporting actors. That is the way the ego works – it is all about how it affects “me.” No matter how much we try to make it about our neighbors, we live every day with our own egotistical thoughts and feelings. And my ego thought it was exciting at first. Now it says it has had enough.

I see the same attitude in others. People are tired of this. Especially those with children and those who have lost jobs. It is like cabin fever on steroids. It does not help that here in New Hampshire it came on the heels of our regular cabin fever. People want their regular lives back. They want what we call "normalcy," although I suspect it will never really get back to normal. It will be more like a “new normal.”

I see people relaxing their restrictions on social distancing. They are less vigilant about wearing masks or keeping their distance. “It won’t matter just this once,” we think. “Maybe strict measures are necessary in national ‘hot spots’ but not in our little neck of the woods,” we reason. “Social distancing doesn’t apply to me or this friend or that family member,” we tell ourselves. That is bad reasoning.

I can only imagine the tense atmosphere in the White House. I understand the desire of our president to want this to stop soon. We all do. The problem is he thinks he can decide when this crisis ends. He believes he has the power and authority to get the nation – and especially the economy - back to normal. I wish that were true. But it is out of his control. It has nothing to do with his – or our - feelings or desires. It will be over when it’s over. There is nothing we can do - except to keep on keeping on.

There is a parallel here with the spiritual life. Some people think the spiritual life is about what we do and don’t do. It’s not. It is about what we cannot do. The spiritual life is about grace. It is about patience and perseverance and hope. There is very little – if anything – about the spiritual life that is under our control. We do not become more spiritual by our efforts or desires. Even spiritual disciplines do not accomplish anything. They are simply what we do. They do not bring us any closer to God.  It is all grace.

In one of his early letters, the apostle Paul wrote, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” It is a matter of not losing heart while we do what is right. It is easy to lose heart during this pandemic. I see the heart loss in myself and others. It is not pretty. This is one of the greatest spiritual dangers of this pandemic.

But it is also one of the greatest opportunities of this pandemic. We can learn patience. We can keep the faith. We can hope. We can love – which means keeping our social distance, not for ourselves but for others. It is not about us. We wear masks for our neighbors – not ourselves. They are a badge of our love.

If we persevere, we shall reap, the apostle says. Reap what? The reward will be the quickest end to this national health crisis with the fewest possible deaths. There is also a spiritual reward. A few verses earlier he lists the harvest. He calls them the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. That sounds like a plentiful harvest. And it is ours to taste in due season by the grace of God… if we do not lose heart.  

NOTE TO READERS: A subscriber emailed me and asked me why I have so few blog posts during this pandemic. It is because I have been spending my time recording video and audio devotions, entitled “Devotions for a Pandemic.” If you are interested, you can access those here:

YouTube devotions:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsK97WbFX2Mb1czemIFlPSawSnD8Yti9j

Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/290971

I Miss Church

It has been two weeks since our church closed its doors “until further notice” because of the coronavirus pandemic. The same with the church in our town where I used to be the pastor and still visit – and preach - occasionally. I miss them both. I miss church.

The pastors of both congregations are doing an excellent job keeping in touch with their parishioners. They send out daily email devotions. They have video and audio recordings of Sunday services, which they record in an empty sanctuary. My wife and I sit side by side in our living room on Sunday mornings and listen to them both on my laptop. We sing along with the hymns, read the scriptures aloud, and pray together. I even get on the computer and send an electronic offering. It’s nice, but it isn’t the same.

Our pastor says that soon he is going to put the Tuesday study group on Zoom. I am looking forward to it. But it won’t be the same. I miss church. I miss seeing the people and shaking their hands. I miss the small talk before and after the service. I miss hearing the choir sing. I miss the organ music. Many churches now have a worship band with guitars and electronic keyboard, but I prefer an organ. It communicates the holy to me.

I miss church. I am one of those people who rarely misses Sunday worship. This will be the first time in probably forty-five years that I have not been in church for two Sundays in a row. When away from home we always find a church to visit. When traveling to western Pennsylvania on a weekend I have been known to pull off a highway exit on Sunday morning, find a church in which to worship, and then continue on our journey after lunch. You might call me a churchaholic. (I wonder if there is a twelve step group for church addicts like me.)

All my life I have heard people give their reasons why they do not attend church. They say that they do not need a church to worship and serve God. They say that they can worship God better by walking in the woods and enjoying nature. They can recite a litany of complaints against the institutional church and organized religion. They say that they are spiritual but not religious. Not me. I miss church.

There is a reason why the church is called the Body of Christ. In Christianity the physical is as important as the spiritual. The physical presence of other people communicates the presence of God. The physical elements of Holy Communion communicates the presence of Christ. The physical rituals in worship communicate the presence of the Holy Spirit. That is why I need church.

Digital worship is just not the same. Video teachings do not connect as deeply as a physical presence. I know the value of online ministry. I have a blog, a podcast, and a YouTube channel. I know these are valuable tools in this digital age. They are helpful substitutes for pastors to use in this time of pandemic when people cannot get out to church.  But they are not enough.

We need the physical. That is why God became incarnate in Jesus Christ. The teachings of Christ are not enough; we need him. We need physical presence. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. That is why we celebrate the Resurrection on Easter. That is why Christianity has always stressed the importance of the physical world and the physical needs of people. The church – the people, not the building – is the physical presence of God in the world.

That presence is what I need. This is what we all need. I miss church. 

Devotions for a Pandemic

Recently I have transitioned from writing blogs to recording devotions on YouTube. It seems like this “new reality” of “social distancing’ necessitates a more face-to-face venue.  This experiment is entitled “Devotions for a Pandemic.” I thought it would be good to link this blog to those video devotions. So here it is.

I hope that these links work for those who get these blog posts via email. In case they do not work I will list the links to the videos at the end of this post, after I embed them. I hope they are helpful.

#3 Meeting God in the Pandemic. In this third episode I expore the questions "Who or What is God?" and "How can we we aware of God?" What is that mysterious dimension of reality that people call the Divine? And - to put it in the context of this COVID-19 pandemic - how can we get in touch with that spiritual dimension of reality that people call God?

#2 Where is God in the Pandemic? In this episode I explore the issue of whether this coronairus pandemic is the judgment of God on this world and our nation.

#1 Devotion for a Pandemic. The current coronavirus pandemic is a time when we are separated from the spiritual communities that enrich our lives. This is the first of some devotions to help fill that gap. This particular devotion is on the story of Elijah hearing the still small voice of God in a cave on Mount Horeb, found in First Kings 19.

Here are the links if the embedded videos do not work:

#1 https://youtu.be/D21VMnuZASA

#2 https://youtu.be/UNHnX_oYKb8

#3 https://youtu.be/srIpMdBHBiI

Thank God for Journalists

This is Lent, and I must confess my sin. I confess that I have not been fair to the news media. I have not gone so far as to call them “the enemy of the people” like President Trump or “the drive-by media” like Rush Limbaugh, but my opinion of them has not been kind. In fact I have been shunning the television news for the last few months. Today I repent.

It is not that the evening news has changed. It is still as sensationalized and partisan as ever. It still attempts to scare the living daylights out of its viewers. The three old mainstream networks are so partisan that they make me cringe. News anchors can barely contain their contempt for any official of the Trump administration that they interview. Just turn off the volume and watch their facial expressions, and you will see that I mean. Body language speaks louder than words.

On the other end of the spectrum, Fox News has become nothing more than the Republican Ministry of Propaganda. They specialize in ridicule and disinformation. Conservative talk radio is even worse. I was listening to a Christian radio channel the other day while driving, and I could not believe the misinformation they were spouting. What ever happened to “Thou shalt not bear false witness”?

I never assume that anything I hear or read in the news is true. That is why I am in the habit of testing anything that seems questionable by verifying it. No alternative facts or fake news for me. If you are not in the habit of checking the accuracy of your news sources, here is a link to the top ten sites to get you started.

You can probably already tell from my remarks that I still harbor some ill will for the national news media – both on the right and left. But the coronavirus pandemic has improved my opinion of journalists. That is especially true of local and state journalists – print, radio, television and internet - who are more in touch with regular people, rather than celebrities and politicians.

Journalism is at its best when there is a real emergency. The problem is that the national media cries “Wolf!” so often that it takes some time to realize when there really is a wolf. This coronavirus pandemic is a wolf, and the news media is helping to make things better. They are giving us timely information and advice about how to respond to a genuine public health crisis.

Reporters have put themselves in harm’s way and have faithfully reported on this burgeoning and ever-changing global crisis. They have undoubtedly saved many lives in the United States by sounding the alarm from the very beginning of the crisis in China.  

As a result I have much greater respect for the news media now. Without a responsible press – sometimes called the fourth pillar of democracy - our federal and state governments would not be taking the action they are now. Thank God for journalists.

Love in a Time of Coronavirus

I confess that when the COVID-19 pandemic began I agreed with President Trump. That should have been a warning sign right there. I thought it was no big deal. It was just another virus to deal with – like the seasonal flu and the common cold. No need to panic. People were overreacting. The media was overblowing things – as usual.

But as I became more informed, I realized the seriousness of the situation. Even though I had stopped watching the evening news months ago, I decided to tune in to see what was happening in Medialand. I was shocked at the video footage. I asked my daughter in Pittsburgh how things were out there. She says that people are freaking out in western Pennsylvania. Store shelves are empty of essentials. People are sheltering in place. I felt like I was in a dystopian film!

Then yesterday we went to the grocery store to pick up a few items for the weekend. Our daughter-in-law asked us to pick up some toilet paper for them. The store was crowded, and the whole aisle of toilet paper was completely empty! We had to go to three stores to find some.

What the heck is going on? Do these bathroom tissue hoarders know something I do not? Are our personal hygiene habits in danger from the Chinese or the Europeans? Are we all going to be forced to convert to bidets?  Is this a democratic socialist plot against American values? I did a little more research. Nope, bathroom protocol has nothing to do with COVID-19.

Seriously now, I know it is a serious situation. I take the recommended precautions. From what I can discern I am pretty safe living in the woods of New Hampshire. My grandkids are too young to be seriously affected. My adult children are in good health. Even though I am nearly seventy years old and therefore in a greater risk category, I am in excellent health – as is my wife. I am not worrying.

The more I research it, the more I realize that this is really about those in the highest risk category, the elderly and those with serious health conditions. The rest of us take reasonable precautions not for ourselves but for them – the most vulnerable of our population – who need to be protected by us. It is a matter of love and compassion, more than self-interest. That is why we do what the health professionals recommend.

Think of the people affected indirectly by this crisis. The working poor, who cannot afford childcare when schools are canceled. Those who cannot afford to miss work because it means going without a paycheck. Minimum wage earners in the service industry are particularly affected by this pandemic. Healthcare workers on the front lines are at risk. The list goes on. That is why the bipartisan agreement announced by the president is necessary.

I am particularly watching the response of churches. Some churches are canceling worship services, following the lead of states that have canceled public schools. The governor of Kentucky – where I went to seminary and served as a pastor - has asked all churches in that state to cancel worship. Italy and South Korea have done the same. The Mormon Church has canceled services worldwide.

Holy sites in the Holy Land have closed. My Baptist denomination in New Hampshire and Vermont has canceled its regional convention for next weekend. Restrictions concerning the Lord’s Supper are handed down. Fist bumps and elbow bumps have replaced handshakes. Even my ever-hugging wife has stopped embracing people at church. That is how I know it is serious!

This time of Coronavirus is an opportunity for churches to show society what it means to be followers of Jesus, who was notorious in his time for ministering to the “unclean.” Although we need to protect ourselves from infection and thereby protect others, of equal concern should be the other physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people. Especially the most isolated and fearful.

In other words this pandemic is an opportunity for ministry. Let’s not waste it. During the worst crises of history - even the Bubonic Plague of Europe - churches reached out. And this coronavirus is no Black Death. This is a time for compassion. It is a time for faith and love – not fear. As the old song says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.”

Maybe if churches take the lead by offering a distinctive, loving response to this crisis, society will take notice of the followers of Jesus. Perhaps this is part of the solution to declining church attendance. Maybe this is the opportunity we have been praying for - to show the world what Christians are like. Or we could just hunker down and wait it out.  At least we have plenty of toilet paper.